Chapter 7

Rachel

Joanie held steady Sunday, and it was decided that I should go ahead and go to school on Monday, since there wasn’t anything I could do at the hospital, and I wasn’t good at sitting still.

I was both dreading and craving the normalcy of school. I needed the routine, the common, the boring. But I didn’t know if my escapade with Lenny or if news of my sister had reached the gossip mill. If it had, it was going to be an excruciatingly long week.

When I got to school, the halls were abuzz with news—thankfully not about me. Although once I caught the rumors going around, my stomach churned, and it only added a new layer of anxiety.

“Did you hear?” Luke, a member of the drama club and a friend of mine, and also the son of one of our local deputies, asked as he saw me coming down the hall to my locker.

“What?” I asked, fearful of what he might say next.

“They found a body. Like, right outside the police station. It’s insane. I don’t even think they know who it is. The whole face was ripped off.”

“Ripped off?” The words tumbled out of my mouth like a ghost, quiet and airy. I felt lightheaded.

“Yeah. They think some animal got ahold of the body. There are stab marks, but also claw marks. And then there’s the missing face.”

“I think I’m going to be sick.”

“I know! Totally sick, right?”

“Luke, did your mom say what kind of animal?” Whitney from drama club popped around the bank of lockers as Luke was dishing the details.

Glancing around, everyone was riveted on Luke’s story, and he was loving being the center of attention. I quietly slipped down the hallway to my locker where Megan soon appeared, Sam on her heels.

“Rachel, I’m so glad Joanie’s doing better!” I’d texted her first thing this morning. Joanie’s vitals had continued slowly improving overnight.

“Me, too. I’m guessing you guys heard the news?” Anxiety spread from my belly to my spine.

Megan’s expression fell and she glanced at Sam. He nodded at me, meeting my eyes. “Definitely wolf,” he said so softly I almost missed it. The anxiety turned to dread and froze my insides up like a block of ice. It wasn’t only Joanie I had to worry about. What if Victor Atwood made a grab for Megan? Was this his twisted idea of a power play? I could not lose my best friend. I suppressed a shudder and suddenly wished Kyp was here with his solid, quiet presence. I hadn’t realized until that moment how much I had come to rely on him during my harrowing weekend.

****

The days felt like a blur of school, hospital visits—during which Sam, Megan, or Kyp always came with me—and homework I couldn’t focus on. The gossip mill continued to thrive regarding the latest salacious news about the brutal killing of the man who turned out to be Harry Steinbach. He owned a little grocery store down on 7th Street. He wasn’t someone who had enemies. He was a well-respected community man and a member of several service organizations.

Dominic Wolfe’s take on it was clear. Mr. Steinbach had been a perfectly innocent person. Chosen specifically for his innocence. The thought of such evil sent shivers skittering over my skin. Dominic had already issued a cautionary recommendation for his wolves to go in pairs everywhere after Victor’s abduction of Sam and Dominic. By Tuesday, he issued it as an order. I wasn’t a part of the pack, but I knew what was going on, and I suddenly found Kyp around a lot more. He became a constant in the periphery of my life, and instead of feeling suffocated, I found it made me feel cared for and strangely enough, included. With my family so preoccupied with Joanie—and rightly so—I was more or less left to my own devices. Kyp became a fixture and quickly fit into a gap that had been left when Megan married Sam and when Joanie had disrupted our family.

Tuesday night, Joanie finally woke up and the relief was so strong it nearly sent me to my knees in the waiting room.

Wednesday morning Kyp met me at the doors of the school.

“Morning,” he started. “How’s Joanie?”

I rubbed my eyes, dark circles cupping them from the lack of sleep. “Kyp, I don’t think I’ve ever been so grateful to see anything as I was to see my sister’s eyeballs last night.” I’d only gotten to be with her for about three minutes, but they had been the best three minutes of the last five days. He smiled as the skin around his eyes crinkled and my stomach fluttered for no reason.

“I’m glad. Really glad. Thanks for texting to let me know last night. I told my mom, and she was about as relieved and happy as you are.”

I smiled at that.

“Tell your mom I said thanks, again. Seriously. I’d bet my college fund that Joanie wouldn’t still be here if it weren’t for your mom.” I refused to let my chin tremble.

“I’ll tell her. That will mean a lot to her. So, I was wondering.” We paused as I opened my locker and frowned at the mountain of books. My teachers were being pretty lenient with me getting my work in this week with all the family upset, but that time was going to come to an end soon.

“Wondering what?” I pulled my mind back to the present and glanced up at Kyp. His eyebrows were drawn together, his forehead wrinkled.

“Would it be all right if I started bringing you to and from school?” I felt my eyebrows lift, unsure where that came from.

“I guess so?” I didn’t mean for it to come out sounding like a question, but it did.

“I…it makes me nervous. There’s a lot of uncovered area between your house and school.” He turned to me, his eyes full of concern, and I realized with a modicum of disappointment that he was only thinking about my safety.

“Oh. Of course,” I amended quickly. “But I have play practice and stuff after school. And crazy hospital visiting hours.”

“That’s all right. I can either pick you up or follow you, whichever you’d prefer. I’m not trying to infringe on your entire life.”

“I know,” I said, a part of me wishing he wanted to take me to and from school for reasons other than that there was a madman on the loose. “I don’t want my schedule to totally rule your life, either.”

He grinned and shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t have much of a social life.” He winked as we rounded the corner for class.